GLENWOOD SPRINGS — — Garfield County commissioners were more than just an idle participant at a special closed-door meeting in Vernal, Utah, in late March to discuss oil shale policy, a Colorado government watchdog group says.
The meeting produced a unified political statement from counties in three states, which was later sent to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The letter was critical of the BLM’s plan to reduce the amount of federal lands available in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming for oil shale research and development.
“Garfield County Commissioner Tom Jankovsky organized the Vernal meeting,” Colorado Common Cause charged Thursday.
“This, despite claims by the commissioners that it was an informational meeting, and characterizing it as Uintah County’s meeting,” the group said in a press release.
The statement accompanied the release of more than 450 pages of documents regarding the March 27 meeting, including numerous emails between those involved. The documents were obtained under open records requests in the three states.
Colorado Common Cause Executive Director Elena Nuñez said the records confirm that the meeting was organized with the intention of giving politicians and industry representatives the opportunity to create a political and legal strategy to support a Bush-era oil shale plan on western public lands.
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